Society

Companies abused benefits

By Wang Qian (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-05-21 07:33

BEIJING - A number of State-owned enterprises have been illegally using their employee's benefit funds, the National Audit Office said.

According to a report released by the office on Friday, the irregularities were due to improper management at the 17 State-owned enterprises that had their 2009 books audited.

By March this year, 735 of the irregularities had been corrected and 65 people responsible for the irregularities or violations had been punished, said the office.

The wrongful activities include advance payments for employee housing, excessive bonuses and forged invoices.

"Decision-making in some companies was not well regulated and caused real losses or potential losses of State-owned assets," the office said in a statement.

Examples of irregular activities include:

China Three Gorges Corp advanced employees more than 225 million yuan ($34.6 million) for apartments in 2007, of which 70 million yuan had not been paid back by 2009.

Qinshan Nuclear Power Co Ltd of China National Nuclear Corp paid 15.6 million yuan to build housing for its staff and an additional 21.4 million yuan for their property management fees.

The China Southern Power Grid Co Ltd illegally bought commercial insurance for nearly 2 billion yuan for its staff from 2006 to 2010.

The three subsidiary companies of China Communication Construction Co Ltd illegally paid about 22.7 million yuan in employee bonuses and nearly 17.7 million yuan for entertainment from 2006 to 2010.

The Tianjin branch of the Sinosteel International Holding Co Ltd used forged invoices worth 80,000 yuan for reimbursement in November 2007.

Excessive employee benefits in some State-owned enterprises have long been a source of public criticism.

In August 2009, media reports said China National Petroleum Corp, the nation's largest oil and gas producer and supplier, spent more than 2 billion yuan for employee housing within the Third Ring Road in Beijing.

Word of such activities sometimes irks others who are trying to make ends meet.

"State-owned enterprises have no right to abuse their profits," Sun Yuchun, a small-restaurant owner in Beijing, told China Daily on Friday.

But some people said they understood the need for such benefits.

"If all companies gave workers good benefits, it would be easier to meet living expenses in big cities," said Liu Yi, a 27-year-old worker in a foreign-funded company.

The audit report also said that assets worth about 1.9 billion yuan and profits of 2.6 billion yuan were overstated in the companies' financial statements, while 3.4 billion yuan in liabilities were falsely included.

In addition, profits of 1.2 billion yuan, assets worth 2.9 billion yuan and liabilities of 2.5 billion yuan were undercounted.